[kictanet] Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional Within the IEBC Commission??

Benson Muite benson_muite at emailplus.org
Thu Sep 8 12:17:48 EAT 2022


Amendments to the IEBC act[0] are possible, see for example[1].


A constitutional amendment is not needed as the constitution does not go 
into details on who can be a commissioner[2]. The IEBC act Revision 
2012[3], specifies:
1. Selection Panel
(1) Within fourteen days of the commencement of this Act, the President
shall, in consultation with the Prime Minister and with the approval of 
the National
Assembly, appoint a Selection Panel comprising of—
(a) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
President;
(b) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
Prime Minister;
(c) one person nominated by the Judicial Service Commission;
(d) one person nominated by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Advisory
Board; and
(e) one person nominated by the Association of Professional Societies
of East Africa

The current act Revision 2020[1] specifies:
1. Selection Panel
(1) At least six months before the lapse of the term of the chairperson or
member of the Commission or within fourteen days of the declaration of a 
vacancy
in the office of the chairperson or member of the Commission under the 
Constitution
or this Act, the President shall appoint a selection panel consisting of 
seven
persons for the purposes of appointment of the chairperson or member of the
Commission.
(2) The selection panel shall consist of —
(a) two men and two women nominated by the Parliamentary Service
Commission;
(b) one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya; and
(c) two persons nominated by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya.

It seems that professional bodies have been preferred.  At present the 
ICT sector does not have a strong representative body, for example 
comparable to the ACM in the USA or the Institute of Electronics of the 
Chinese Academy of Sciences. Essentially, a body capable of joining the 
International Federation for Information Processing[3] is needed.

The Kenya National Academy of Sciences[4] may also play a good role, 
though at present the website appears to be down.

The IEBC act does not include commissioners with a technical background, 
who might be able to understand engineering of KIEMS kits, the details 
of biometric identification and results transmission. In addition to a 
computer science/IT professional, it would be good for an Engineering 
body such as The Institution of Engineers of Kenya[5] to also make a 
nomination.  Delimitation of boundaries is an important part of the 
requirements of the IEBC, technical expertise in this area is also 
welcome to prevent gerrymandering.


0) https://www.iebc.or.ke/uploads/resources/8Z5fmROhVD.pdf
1) 
http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/2020/TheIndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommission_Amendment_Act_2020.pdf
2) 
http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/IndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommissionNo9of2011.pdf
3) 
http://www.kenyalaw.org:8181/exist/kenyalex/actview.xql?actid=Const2010#KE/CON/Const2010/chap_15
4) http://www.ifip.org/
5) https://www.knascience.or.ke/
6) https://iekenya.org

On 9/1/22 15:42, Shitemi Khamadi via KICTANet wrote:
> Hi David
> 
> Interesting question. I was pondering the same early this week and my 
> answer is yes. The issue would be the process of getting there and I 
> think we have a number.
> 
> The best would be if it's anchored in the constitution. Meaning that 
> should there be any process to amend the IEBC section, then the sector 
> should consider adding their voice to it. The second is to Parliament 
> and the select committee that oversees this process. A memo to them, 
> quite early in their process should suffice. The same can also be sent 
> to the President. The last is to encourage colleagues to put their names 
> out there when the time comes.
> 
> A representative process closer to the IPPG one could also work, if such 
> an opportunity arises or legal revisions lend themselves to it.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 3:23 PM David Indeje via KICTANet 
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> 
> wrote:
> 
>     image.png
>     Dear Listers,
> 
>     In our latest series of blogs about the 2022 Kenya Election as
>     authored by Mr John Walubengo, we are posing a question:
> 
>     "IEBC Commission: Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional?
> 
>     Mr Walubengo notes that "In all the past three presidential
>     petitions (2013, 2017a, and 2017b), ICT seems to have been central
>     to the Supreme Court’s final decision. However, the way ICT matters
>     were prosecuted, one could almost say the ICT was on trial."
> 
>     Read the rest of the article here: https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt
>     <https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt>
> 
> 
>     --
>     *Kind Regards,*
> 
>     **
> 
>     *David Indeje*
> 
>     *KICTANet Communications
>     *_____________________________________
> 
>     +254 (0) 711 385 945 |  +254 (0) 734 024 856
>     KICTANet portals
>     KICTANet.or.ke <https://kictanet.or.ke/> | Twitter
>     <https://twitter.com/kictanet> | LinkedIn
>     <https://www.linkedin.com/company/18428106/admin/> | Facebook
>     <https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/>
>     _______________________________________________
>     KICTANet mailing list
>     KICTANet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:KICTANet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>     https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>     <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet>
>     Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet <http://twitter.com/kictanet>
>     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
>     <https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/>
> 
>     Unsubscribe or change your options at
>     https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/shitemi.khamadi%40gmail.com
>     <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/shitemi.khamadi%40gmail.com>
> 
> 
>     KICTANet is a multi-stakeholder Think Tank for people and
>     institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation.
>     KICTANet is a catalyst for reform in the Information and
>     Communication Technology sector. Its work is guided by four pillars
>     of Policy Advocacy, Capacity Building, Research, and Stakeholder
>     Engagement.
> 
>     KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable
>     behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's
>     times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or
>     personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares
>     or qualifications.
> 
>     KICTANet - The Power of Communities, is Kenya's premier ICT policy
>     engagement platform.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "In the whole wide world, Africa comes first.
>   Let Africans remain as Africans and not become poor copies of Europeans.
>   I am proud of my colour, whoever is not proud of his colour is not fit 
> to live.
>   Some people took to war, we took to peace;
>   Some people took to hate, we took to love;
>   Some people took to anger, we took to laughter.
>   Only the best is good enough for Africa."
>    Rev. (Dr.) Samuel  Aggrey.
> Twitter @oleshitemi
> www.shitemi.com
> <http://oleshitemi.wordpress.com/>
> w <http://oleshitemi.wordpress.com/>ww.dhahabu.co.ke 
> <http://ww.dhahabu.co.ke>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KICTANet mailing list
> KICTANet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
> 
> Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/benson_muite%40emailplus.org
> 
> 
> KICTANet is a multi-stakeholder Think Tank for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. KICTANet is a catalyst for reform in the Information and Communication Technology sector. Its work is guided by four pillars of Policy Advocacy, Capacity Building, Research, and Stakeholder Engagement.
> 
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
> 
> KICTANet - The Power of Communities, is Kenya's premier ICT policy engagement platform.





More information about the KICTANet mailing list